My 10 Favorite Shots Of 2018

I’m officially making it a tradition: here are my 10 favorite Alaska images from 2018, in no particular order. Thanks for following my photography adventures in 2018—I look forward to taking many new shots in 2019!

1. Devils Thumb Aurora

I camped overnight on a mountain ridge with a couple friends to catch the aurora over this rock outcropping in the Alaska Range called Devils Thumb. The aurora danced for a few hours that night as we watched from a couple thousand feet above the Richardson Highway. Read my blog post about this adventure.

2. Canwell Glacier Cave

This ice cave has been around for several years now hidden in the moraine of Canwell Glacier. It has become increasingly difficult to access over time but it never disappoints. The ice near the entrance is a beautiful translucent aquamarine color and the cave extends into total darkness after several twists and turns. Read more about my trip to this ice cave here.

3. Torchlight Aurora

Campfires are a great way to light the foreground in an aurora shot on a moonless night, but there’s no wood to burn on most of Alaska’s mountainous terrain (tree line is roughly 3000 feet in Alaska) so I carried supplies to make a torch on top of Donnelly Dome for this shot. I would like to try a shot like this again on a more rugged mountain. Read more about this adventure here.

4. Pass To Wood River

The highlight of my summer was hiking nearly 130 miles from Black Rapids to Healy across the eastern Alaska Range. This is my favorite shot from the trip because you can tell we’re in the middle of a rugged, off-trail backcountry expedition by studying the details and terrain without any narrative. Read about this traverse here.

5. Twenty Below Doghouse Portrait

I loved how the light was catching this sled dog’s face framed by the doghouse opening on this frigid morning in Interior Alaska. The frozen dog spit helps convey how cold it was at the time, nearly twenty degrees (°F) below zero.

6. Eastern Alaska Range Sunrise

I’ve taken many selfie shots on a timer like this one but I don’t think I’ve ever looked so awesome. I hiked up a mountain ridge overnight to catch this 3 a.m. sunrise in the eastern Alaska Range near Black Rapids, and after sunrise I hiked all the way to the ridgeline above the Jarvis Glacier canyon. Hands down my favorite day spent in the mountains last summer. Read more about this adventure here.

7. Onemile Creek Frozen Waterfall

I made a couple trips to this frozen waterfall in the spring. A little scrambling will get you behind the ice, which glows like an electric blue curtain. Read about this waterfall here.

8. Pioneer Peak Sunrise With Denali

I hiked overnight along the Pioneer Peak-Austin Helmers Trail for this sunrise shot of Pioneer Peak with Denali in the background. I mainly wanted to hike the trail, but I planned this shot in Google Earth beforehand and it came out fairly nice. It says “Palmer, Alaska” without being too obvious.

9. Hidden Alpine Lake

There’s a trail on the Kenail Peninsula that doesn’t see much traffic even though it leads to beautiful views in no time. My brother and I made an excursion from the trail to visit this pristine alpine lake and another two lakes feeding it from above. We had just hiked the Reed Lakes Trail in Hatcher Pass which was flooded with people, so it was nice to have scenery like this all to ourselves.

10. Donnelly Lake Reflection

I camped overnight at Donnelly Lake to shoot the aurora and wound up with relatively calm water the next morning, which made for some nice reflection shots of the Hayes Range. This wasn’t the sharpest reflection I photographed but it features my tent, which hints that this isn’t Wonder Lake or Reflection Pond in Denali National Park, though the terrain might look similar.

Click here to see my favorite images from 2017.

Early Winter

Aurora borealis over Granite Mountain.

My photographic output tends to shrink during early winter in Interior Alaska. After the fall colors disappear, it's a waiting game until enough snow falls to cover up the brown landscape and provide a good enough base for me to start using my snowshoes and splitboard again. The rivers and creeks are still flowing, but the colder air temperatures make crossings more uncomfortable and dangerous. Snow conditions at higher elevations can be unpredictable. The aurora borealis returns but the nights tend to be cloudy until the really cold temperatures start showing up. Still, it's possible to get out this time of year and take some good shots.

Fall colors on an unmarked trail above Bear Creek in the Alaska Range, near Black Rapids.

One of the latest salmon runs in Alaska occurs in Delta Junction where I live. Salmon travel over 1,000 miles up the Yukon River and Tanana River and spawn in the Delta River and Clearwater River in town. It's an odd sight to see salmon swimming upstream with snow on the banks, and some of them even accumulate ice on their body before they die. 

Dead chum salmon near the confluence of the Delta River and Tanana River.

Caribou and moose shed the velvet off their antlers by early September, and they're one of the best subjects to photograph until November. I just passed a large group of bull caribou a couple days ago (mid-November) and I only counted one antler among them. The females keep their antlers much later into winter but they aren't as impressive as male caribou antlers. The bull moose may keep their antlers into December but I haven't had much luck this year bumping into any big bulls at close range.

Bull caribou foraging after the first significant snowfall in the Donnelly Flats.

I saw the aurora on several occasions in August, September, and October, but never at the right time to snap any pictures. I finally caught a good show on November 7 after a heavy snowfall. It was my first time photographing in subzero temperatures this winter and the Richardson Highway was completely frosted over. The moon was nearly full but the aurora still shined brightly in the night sky, dancing over Donnelly Dome and the Alaska Range to the south. (Check out my guide for tips on shooting the aurora.)

Aurora borealis over Donnelly Dome.

Frequent high winds tend to blow the snow away in Delta Junction, so after it snowed heavily a week ago I made a point to photograph around town before the winds arrived. I caught a nice sunrise at the Tanana River bridge in Big Delta, where ice was flowing in the river and bald eagles were flying back and forth over the pipeline. 

Sunrise at the Tanana River bridge in Big Delta.

In June, I passed by a new ice cave entrance at the terminus of Castner Glacier. The bulk of Castner Creek used to bubble up from underneath the glacier at this point, but the water has since carved a large tunnel beneath the ice. I visited the tunnel in October but there was too much water flowing through it to get very far inside. I returned to it a few days ago and the floor has now frozen solid. Oddly enough, it has snowed more in Delta Junction than in the mountains, so my friends and I were able to hike to the glacier without snowshoes.  

Hiking through snow to Castner Glacier.

Walking on the ice floor was a little unnerving since we could see silty water flowing beneath the ice. My friends opted to climb onto an "ice bench" and followed it until it ended, while I continued along the floor in crampons. The tunnel darkened as it curved around a corner, and the ice started becoming too thin for me to continue. We heard rushing water echoing somewhere ahead, but couldn't tell how much farther the tunnel extended. I'll be back later this winter after the ice on the floor thickens. (If you're planning to photograph this or another ice cave, check out my blog post How To Photograph An Ice Cave.)

Exploring a tunnel beneath the ice of Castner Glacier.

I'm looking forward to exploring many more ice caves this winter and hopefully many sleepless nights shooting the aurora as well. 

Interested in photographing the aurora or an ice cave? I offer guided tours.